Xena Networks platforms overview

1. Xena Networks - the Ethernet Test Infrastructure Company
Xena Test Platform
Modular Ethernet Test Platform Features and Benefits
A new class of professional gigabit Ethernet test platform A new class of Ethernet test equipment
for the Ethernet eco-system, delivering a breakthrough for load stress, performance and
price-performance benchmark for load stress and functional functional testing of gigabit Ethernet
testing of Ethernet equipment and network infrastructure. equipment and services
• Wire-speed hardware based traffic
Providers of Ethernet-based network devices and services can benefit from
generation and analysis
the ease-of-use, cost efficiency, interoperability, and scalability of the Xena
Networks test platform. In addition, the world’s highest density and lowest • Highest test port density in industry, lowest
power consumption per test port delivers a test platform ready for the future. power per test port. Ideal for testbeds where
Developers and providers of Ethernet-based network appliances and physical port scalability is vital
services can deploy the Xena Networks test platform as an ideal complement
• Automated scripting from any TCP/IP capable
or alternative to test equipment solutions from Ixia, Spirent and Agilent, at a
price point which obsoletes in-house custom built test solution projects. scripting tool environment such as TCP/
Python/VB/Java
The high precision, stream based, wire-speed traffic generation and analysis
capabilities are suited for testing of network devices under deliberate • Stream based wire speed Layer 2-3 traffic
error, stress, and random conditions. Packet formats can be defined per load generation for millions of flows
individual packet byte, and packet spacing, transmission rates, and bursts can
be defined with byte and kbps accuracy. • RFC 2544 test suite
The Xena test platform provides an open environment where traffic from any • Wire-speed traffic capture with
3rd party software application or test suite can be fully transparently mixed programmable filter and trigger criteria, and
with L2-3 traffic generated at wire speed. Network equipment manufacturers export to industry standard tool WireShark
and service providers can demonstrate that end user triple play QoE is
guaranteed during network congestion, by generating traffic loads representing • Test case configuration, execution, and
tens of thousands of individual network users. statistics reporting from MS Excel program
A Windows GUI client (XenaManager) is provided for test execution, and • Remote management of testpoints
remote management of test equipment located in multiple locations. The
user can also configure, execute, and collect statistics directly from a MS Excel • High-precision performance measurement of
program using VBA language. Finally, an open TCP/IP based text API allows throughput, latency, loss, sequence and mis-
users to automate testing from any software environment, using TCP/Python/ ordering errors
VBA/Java wrappers to convert to/from the generic Xena TCP/IP scripting
format. • Synchronized traffic generation and latency
The Xena test platform provides a complete suite of copper and optical Gigabit measurement across up to 72 test ports, and
Ethernet and 10-Gigabit Ethernet modules, with a roadmap to 100/40-Gigabit detailed histogram graphs
Ethernet modules in 2010. The 10-GigE interfaces include optical XFP SFP+, and
,
• Validation with negative and abnormal test
copper CX4. The GigE interfaces include copper 10/100/1000M Ethernet and
optical 100/1000M Ethernet. conditions per packet byte
One XenaBay up to:
• 24 x 10-GigE copper/optical ports
• 72 x GigE copper/optical ports
One XenaCompact up to:
• 2 x 10-GiGE copper/optical ports
• 6 x GigE copper/optical ports
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N E T W O R K S

2. Feature Overview
Test components values. Incoming packet streams are automatically identified
using optionally auto inserted Test Payload fields. Analysis of
The Xena test platform provides a flexible and high port count
traffic throughput, latency, jitter, loss, sequence, and misorder
L2-3 test platform that easily interfaces to 3rd party applications
errors is performed real-time per received stream with 16/32 ns
and test software including XenaMation and Veryx ATTEST.
accuracy depending on the interface type (optical/electrical).
Clients connect with standard Ethernet GigE interfaces to the test
platform, with support for remote access using IP addressing.
Users can capture packets at wire speed on each port for detailed
analysis and export to 3rd party packet analysis tool WireShark,
Xena’s wire speed test modules are provided in high-density 1U
which in conjunction with event triggering and programmable
(XenaCompact) and 4U (XenaBay) chassis form factors, with full
filters provides a unique ability to identify and isolate
support for multi-user environments for both interactive GUI, MS
performance issues.
Excel, and automated script based test sessions.
Stream oriented traffic generation API scripting from any tool environment
An open specification text based API allows the user to script
Users can define and generate hundreds of transmit and receive
for test automation purposes from any tool and scripting
streams with their own unique traffic profile. Each stream can
environment, only requiring that the scripting environment
generate 100k’s of unique traffic flows by using programmable
support text and line-based TCP/IP communication.
packet field modifiers to increment or randomize field values such
as IP addresses or VLAN identifiers. This makes it easy to scale
your tests beyond the maximum performance parameters of your Any changes made through the API are automatically reflected
network or device. on the GUI. This unique and easy to use scripting-from-anywhere
concept lets the user access the Xena test platform from any
The stream rate can be defined as a percentage of line rate, proprietary or commercial scripting environment based on
frames per second, bit-rate, and the injection of packets can languages such as Tcl, Python, VBA, or Java development
be controlled as a single-packet shot, number of packets, time environments, using wrapper to convert from existing Tcl/
duration, or in continuous mode. Traffic profiles can be defined Python/VB/Java APIs to the generic Xena API.
as uniform or bursty, and custom packet editing is facilitated by
a graphically driven field editor that lets users build any packet
format, in addition to predefined packet templates for Ethernet, MS Excel program for test case configuration,
Ethernet II, VLAN, ARP IPv4, IPv6, UDP TCP LLC, SNAP GTP ICMP
, , , , , , execution, and reporting
RTP RTCP STP or fully specified by user.
, , , As an alternative for GUI and script based test case execution, the
user can configure, execute, and log statistics using a standard
MS Excel program. The MS Excel templates provided by Xena use
Real time analysis and reporting VBA to communicate with the test equipment using Xena’s TCP/
Packet flow statistics are tracked per stream, or per-user defined IP scripting language, and is a very powerful means for operating
filters which can include any combination of programmable field the equipment for anyone familiar with MS Excel.
Available in both a 1U and 4U form factor (the XenaBay above), the
high-density Xena platforms can be equipped with a wide variety of
modules - including the world’s first tri-speed 10-40-100G test module.

3. Technical Specifications
Stream and Flow Generation • Random - randomly selected between a • Test packets/octets, sequence errors,
specified minimum and maximum length. misordered packets, payload integrity,
Transmission Mode
minimum latency, average latency, maxi-
• Continuous • Butterfly - uniform selecting between a mum latency
specified minimum and maximum length.
• A specified number of packets sent Packet Capture
once, between 1 and 16M packets Test payload
• Triggers and filters can be set up to trig-
• Latency measurements across multiple • A proprietary test payload can option-
ally be automatically placed into packets. ger on specific events, and to capture
ports with 16/32 ns accuracy depend-
This allows the test platform to provide packets meeting particular criteria.
ing on interface type (optical/electri-
cal). per-stream packet loss, min/max/average • Multiple capture criteria can be specified
latency, payload integrity, out of sequence, using AND/OR expressions.
Bandwidth distributions and misorder statistics.
• Criteria can be fully specified by the user,
• Constant (100% uniform) and burst Checksum calculations or using predefined filters
distributions.
• FCS and CRC values in packet templates • Export to 3rd party analysis tool Wire-
• All loads can be specified in percent- can be automatically calculated or set to Shark
age of line rate, frames/s, or Mb/s errored values
• Burst parameters specified by burst Capture Criteria
Per-Port Statistics
length, and burst density • Any combination of multiple packet field
• Packets/octets per port, FCS errors, packet/ values specified by the user
Packet headers octets for traffic with and without a test
• Completely specified by the user, or payload • FCS errored packets
Ethernet, Ethernet II, VLAN, ARP IPv4, • Packets/octets for up to 6 user specified
, • Packets belonging to a specific stream
IPv6, UDP TCP LLC, SNAP GTP ICMP
, , , , , traffic filters. Filters fully specified by user,
RTP RTCP STP or fully specified by user.
, , , • Packet matching a user defined filter such
using up to 6 custom pattern and length as IPv4, IPv6, UDP or VLAN packets
,
• Any field in a packet template can be match terms.
set to an invalid value for negative Capture Triggers
testing Per-Stream Statistics
• Any frame received
Packet payloads • Packets must contain a test payload for
per-stream transmit and receive statistics to • Packet matching a user defined filter such
• An incrementing 8 bit pattern be reported. Statistics will be reported on as IPv4, IPv6, UDP or VLAN packets
,
• Autofill with a user-specified pattern streams, even if the packet encapsulation • Packet with a FCS errors
changes through a device under test, or if it
Field modifiers receives packets with different encapsula-
• Two field modifiers can be applied to tions or modified header fields. For a complete feature list, refer to Xena
any field in a packet, per streams. The Networks test platform user manual.
modifiers can be chained together.
• A field modifier can be set to incre-
ment or decrement or be random
within a specified range. For example,
increment VLAN ID, and traversing the
IP ToS field in a chained order.
Packet length distributions
• Fixed - all frames belonging to the
stream are sent with same length
• Incrementing/decrementing - from
a specified minimum and maximum
length
Screenshots of the
XenaManager GUI

4. Applications
Lab-based Testing Functional and negative
The Xena Networks test platform is testing
well suited for validation of hardware
performance and negative testing in The Xena test platform has a rich
development environments. set of features specifically designed
The new class of pricing structure for wire-speed testing hardware
enables the realization of large port interfaces and for performing
count test beds at a fraction of the negative testing, making it
cost of existing test solutions.. ideally suited for the test needs of
Historically, equipment manufacturers hardware test engineers
have complemented commercial test complete test platform for wire speed
test load generation and analysis. • High-precision latency measurement,
platforms with internally built PC/
Key features include wire-speed 16/32 ns for optical/electrical interface
FPGA platforms, now ideally suited to
be replaced with Xena Networks. traffic generation and analysis, a GUI • Specify invalid packet sizes, IFG, and
For lower capacity network appliances framework, an open TCP/IP scripting checksums
with 1 or 2 ports of GigE or 10-GigE, a protocol, and integration with a broad
• Randomize packet fields, packet
single 1U Xena test system provides a range of functional and conformance
payloads and packet lengths for truly
test suites.
randomized packet generation
• Send precise numbers of packets
• Built in wire-speed capture in
conjunction with event triggering
Network Infrastructure Test determine what the real end user
can be guaranteed to experience in • Specify transmit lengths at L2 or L3
Ethernet based access, aggregation
boundary network scenarios. • Specify packet inter-departure times
and regional transport network
infrastructures are on the increase The efficient remote IP based and accurate traffic burst profiles
worldwide, with many operators management capability, compact
form factor, and wire-speed L2-3 • Automation using TCP/IP scripting, or
already implementing 1 and 10
stress testing capabilities of the Xena MS Excel for test case configuration,
Gbps Ethernet transmission services
Networks test platform is used to execution, and reporting.
between locations and aggregation
points. drive the transmission link or network
into a full utilization state, scaling into
To remain competitive, network Network Infrastructure Testing
hundreds of Gbps of test traffic across
service providers must verify network
a very high number of network access
performance according to SLA, under Network infrastructure testing
points.
periods of network congestion, to measures the ability of a network
or device to deliver performance
(throughput, loss, latency) according
to SLA
• Remote GUI management of test
components between central offices
• Wire-speed L2 and L3 traffic generation,
easily scalable to 100’s of Gbps
• Automatic and real-time analysis of
throughput, loss, and detailed latency
distributions and jitter profiles
Xena Networks ApS Xena Networks USA Sales contact:
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N E T W O R K S
Graabroedretorv 6-8, 3. sal
1154 Copenhagen K
Denmark
Phone: +45 7020 0823
Fax: +45 6980 3398
945 Concord Street #1200
Framingham, MA 01701
USA
Phone : +1 508-358-0127
Fax : +1 508-342-7018
sales@xenanetworks.com
© Xena Networks — 2011-01-21